Manic, arrogant and sadistic, Basil Fawlty has to be the worst ever hotel owner. He can never seem to please his guests, or his wife for that matter, who is constantly verbally attacking him. Fawlty is rude, incompetent, a frightful snob and scared stiff of his wife – a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.

Everyone loves the BAFTA-winning series ‘Fawlty Towers’ – except the poor, abused guests who have to stay at Basil Fawlty’s hotel (tonight at 10pm on TV ONE). Since the mid-1970s, when the hotel first opened its doors to the public, it became essential viewing in 61 countries worldwide.

‘Fawlty Towers’ claims to have never received a bad press review and despite being screened again and again, the series haven’t lost their appeal – Basil and Sybil’s insults to each other, Manuel’s plaintive “Que?”, and “Don’t mention the war” to the Germans have been absorbed into everyday speech.
Basil (John Cleese) is a much put-upon, hard-working hotel manager whose life is plagued by dead guests, hotel inspectors and riff-raff. His biggest headache is a “nest of vipers” – his nagging wife, Sibyl (Prunella Scales). Together they run their hotel, ‘Fawlty Towers’, with a little help from the unflappable Polly (Connie Booth), and hardly any help at all from Manuel (Andrew Sachs), the trainee waiter from Barcelona, who is as mad as his boss and the butt of all his frustration.

Episode one sees Basil delighted when Lord Melbury checks into his hotel. At last a guest with class, and much better than the rough diamond Sybil is fawning over. But he pays for his snobbery when Melbury asks him to cash a cheque.